New Delhi, May 11 -- Noise. It was the first thing that hit me when I stepped out for a morning walk after I returned home to India from a two-month break in a small British town. Screeching brakes, loud horns, vendor calls, ringing phones, barking dogs, intermittent chatter.a loud litany of sounds threatened to drown my thoughts.

It led me to think that in a world moving at a frenetic pace, there's been a silent casualty: quiet.

A relentless soundtrack to our always-on lives means that opportunities to find silence are rare. Perhaps that's why, in a year marked by unprecedented temperatures and rising consciousness about the environmental damage, the desire for silent travel is growing.

US-based non-profit Global Wellness Institute ha...